#5 - 0--blackboxz--Bonnie Raitt To Release New Album 'Souls Alike'--2005-05-27 22:15:29
#Bonnie Raitt To Release New Album 'Souls Alike'
September 13, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Capitol Records) - "This record was a matter of stretching and not repeating myself," says Bonnie Raitt. "Some of the songs are clearly terrain that people have come to know and appreciate from me, but the rest are about finding some new direction and something new to say." - Even a quick listen to Souls Alike, the eighteenth album in this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's remarkable career, reveals a number of surprises. It's her first album ever to bear the credit "Produced by Bonnie Raitt." Conspicuously absent is even one of her signature 12-bar blues stomps. And where most of her projects have contained a mix of songs written by both celebrated songwriters and her own new discoveries, usually with some original material, all eleven compositions on Souls Alike come from lesser-known writers with whom Raitt feels a deep affinity and whose work she wants to champion. That connection-together with a flourishing creative collaboration with her beloved touring band and co-producer/engineer Tchad Blake-provided the lifeblood and inspiration for the album's direction, and even its title. It marks a brave, exhilarating step in a legendary body of work.
The album features sounds ranging from the swampy groove and electronic loops of "Deep Water" to the crystalline lament "I Don't Want Anything to Change." Throughout, Raitt's unparalleled slide guitar playing is pushed to sizzling new heights. Songs like "The Bed I Made" and the edgy, angular "Crooked Crown" address complex emotions-"thorny, adult themes," says Raitt-in ways seldom heard in pop music. Of the new crop of songwriters highlighted on Souls Alike, she says "I'm as enthusiastic about these guys as I was when I first heard people like Jackson Browne and John Prine in my early days."
It's been three years since Raitt's last new release, 2002's Silver Lining, but she's stayed busy non-stop in the interim. A lengthy world tour followed the album's release, along with numerous guest recordings (including the stunning "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" on Ray Charles' final album Genius Loves Company, which won last year's Grammy® award for Album of the Year). Most recently, she participated in the historic "Vote for Change" tour leading up to the 2004 Presidential election.
All the while, Raitt was also dealing with a series of family crises. Her older brother contracted brain cancer, now in remission, while both of her parents passed away less than a year apart. "It's been a heavy time," she notes. Not coincidentally, the opening track and first single from Souls Alike is "I Will Not Be Broken," an anthem of strength and survival with a classic R&B feel.
Various television appearances are planned around the album's release, leading immediately into a year-long tour from this veteran road warrior. In typical form, Raitt is fired up by the challenge of performing the ambitious and innovative material on Souls Alike onstage.
"You gotta do stuff that stretches you," says Bonnie Raitt. "I would hang up my spurs if I didn't have something new to play."
